>Not Memorizing Poetry

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A year ago when I was here at Seagrove Beach working on this same novel (yes, I’m slow) I attempted a dual goal: I began the project of memorizing a poem each day and writing a brief reflection on how the poetry was affecting my prose. I abandoned that project after about 40 days (might still resurrect it one day) but I do at least READ a poem each morning before writing. Reading poetry is to my writing life what prayer is to my spiritual life.

In addition to always having several favorite volumes handy, I subscribe to two online sources that deliver a poem to my email every day: yourdailypoem.com and the Library of Congress’ Poetry 180. And many days, when we are both fortunate, Corey Mesler sends me another of his poems that has found a publishing home, like this one, which he sent yesterday:

“Amy LaVere’s Underwear” by Corey Mesler (in Golden Sparrow Literary Review)

Here are a couple of recent poems sent to me from other sources: (you can subscribe to these if you’d like)

“Walking to School” by Nils Peterson (from yourdailypoem.com)

“The Printer’s Error” by Aaron Fogel (from the Library of Congress’ Poetry 180)

Do you read poetry regularly? Do you memorize poetry? Who are your favorite poets? Are there online sources you subscribe to that deliver poetry to you daily? I’d love to hear from you. And now… back to the novel-in-progress. I think something big is going to happen to Mare today….